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“If only loneliness could be solved with a morning tea or a coffee group get-together,” he says, “but if you don’t feel that you’re worthy of love and belonging, you’re not going to go to it in the first place.”

Men gathered around the stand, chatting as they drank their morning tea and electric rickshaws rumbled by.

Yu’s husband, Jack Chen, first grew suspicious in April 2022 when he began to notice a “chemical taste” in his morning tea.

“An empty chair at the dinner table — birthdays, anniversaries, holidays without them. Everyday things, small things, that detail you miss the most. The scent when you open that closet door. … The morning tea you shared together. The bend of his smile, or the perfect pitch of her laugh.”

Workers were soon taken on again with a 5% pay rise provided they gave up their morning tea break.